Latino Daily News

U.S. Cuban Catholics Will Go to Cuba to Meet Pope

The Archdiocese of Miami has confirmed a pilgrimage to Cuba to allow the Cuban Catholic devotees in South Florida to participate in the visit to the island of Pope Benedict XVI, scheduled for the end of March.

Details will be communicated within ten days, according to those in charge, by the Archdiocese of Miami. “I hope that there will be hundreds of people who will go to Cuba,” said the Archbishop of Miami, Mgr. Thomas Wenski, during a meeting with “El Nuevo Herald,” and “The Miami Herald”.

Mgr.Wenski reiterated that the Holy Father’s journey, in addition to strengthening the Catholic faith in the island, will also serve to unite the Cuban Catholics who live on the island with those who live outside the island. “I hope that the Pope once again insists on promoting the idea of reconciliation”, Mgr.Wenski said, he has always wanted to maintain a close relationship between the Catholic Church in Florida and in Cuba.

Recently the Archbishop of Miami co-celebrated, together with the Bishops of Cuba, an open-air Mass in La Habana, which marked the end of three years of preparation for the Marian Jubilee of 2012, sponsored by the Bishops of Cuba to commemorate the 400 years of the discovery of the image of the Virgin of Charity, patroness of Cuba, which laid the foundation for Christian worship on the island.

During his pastoral visit, from March 26 to 28, the Pope will visit the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Charity of El Cobre, in Santiago de Cuba, which preserves the original image of the Virgin, found in the Bay of Nipe in 1612.